I've blogged very briefly before (or should I say, shared photos) of the Great Park in Orange County. I attended an Instameet – you know an Instagram meet-up, where you spend hours snapping Instagram pics of cool things, with even cooler people.

Anyway, after attending that my kids had been wanting to go there and ride in the big orange helium balloon. So after scouring their website and choosing the perfect date, watching weather forecasts and wind speeds for two weeks, we settled on going last weekend.

The weather report was wrong, it rained all the way there, and it was too windy for the balloon. Thankfully though I'd chosen a date where there were loads of other activities going on so that there would be plenty to keep the kids busy.

We started our day going on the carousel a couple of times, ventured over to the park where there is free sports equipment to use in the grass area, and then wandered to the Terrace Lawn where the Bark in the Great Park was just gearing up. There were dog safety talks for kids, a Disc Dogs demonstration, a doggy fashion show, and lots of dogs attempting to make their way through obstacle courses. Of course there were crafts too. From there we headed to the Farm and Food Lab where they were telling the Three Sisters Garden story. The kids then made little seed packets and brought home corn, squash and bean seeds to plant.

Lastly, we headed to the Farmer's Market for some fresh fruit and veggies, shaved ice and kettle corn. I love food trucks and I tried the yummiest Chicken Bacon Fries for lunch. They were so good. Really!

Miss M was thrilled to meet 'Sparky the safety dog'. Our dog is named Sparky and she was missing him.

There was lots of hill rolling while we had lunch and watched the Disc Dogs.

If you don't live in the area, make sure you look at the schedule to find a day when other activities are happening in the park, just in case the balloon isn't going up. We plan on trying again over the summer when the kids can do a new kids workshop in the garden. We can't wait to go back again once the chess set and reflection pond have been finished too.